ANNUAL ('AWC')
HAWES MINI-METHS, WENSLEYDALE
- 23-26 SEPT 2016
Participants: Dave
(Shooting-Stick) Leishman (organiser), Kathy, Dave, Chris & James Kelly,
(Mad) Mike & Verena (Muesli) Petzold, Eric (Polevault) & Val Scott
Everyone arrived, not only on the right
day, but by 6.30 p.m. in the bar of the Fountain, our habitual hostelry at
Hawes. That evening we ate "Thru'
the Back", as the large function room is known, in the company of
teenagers, mainly girls, celebrating at a long table, but we're sure they had
nothing to do with the 'W' in this meet's nickname - what a thought! ...
DAY 1:
At Polevault's suggestion, we did an anti-clockwise circular to Dodd
Fell top (668 m, 2189'), out on the Pennine Way and back on the Roman road
round the east side of Weather Fell - nothing to do with what you think, which
was blowy but fine, but all to do with sheep. [Eric:
want to elaborate here? Not in my
Concise Oxford, and can't remember what we were told.] Total distance around 10 miles [I measured it
roughly with a scale on the 25,000 sheet].
That evening we betook ourselves to our favourite Hawes eatery, the
upstairs Wensleydale Pantry, the very quintessence of a traditional Yorkshire
dining-room, with superb roasts.
DAY 2:
A marginally more demanding day, starting off minus Muesli, who went to
church, and the Scotts, who went to mooch, and ended up in the classic way of
the aged, by sitting in their car at the top of a pass admiring the view; by the afternoon they could, for the weather,
blowy and wettish with low cloud a.m., cleared up nicely. We hiked from Horton-in-Ribblesdale, the back
route across the limestone pavement, up Ingleborough (724 m, 2373'), one of the
Three Peaks, and, like Pen-y-ghent, something of a constant in the AWC list of
hikes over the years. Mad Mike,
despairing of the wind, turned about before the steep stuff, but the rest of
the party ascended to a lunch in the wind-break, much needed, before retracing
steps in the sun. Another Pantry dinner
- can't keep us away - though the Kellys had gone home from Horton.
That's it, folks, till next year, minus
yours truly, who should be living at Cape Town fairly permanently by then. All exeunt, stage left, right, up,
down, on the Monday a.m.
S-S